article: Jim, a successful businessman, told the experience of his childhood.
  When he was 12, his parents died. He was alone and didn't get on well with others. People always laughed at him. No one showed kindness to him.
  His only friend was a dog named Tiger. He gave his dog enough to eat and drink, but sometimes he was not polite to it. He didn't know that an unkind word sometimes could cut one's heart like a knife.
  One day as he walked down the street, a young lady was walking in front of him. Suddenly one of her bags dropped from her arms. As she stopped to pick it up, she dropped other bags. He came to help her. "Thank you, dear! You are a nice little boy!" she said kindly, smiling.
  A special feeling came to him. These were the first kind words he had ever heard. He watched her until she went far away, and then he whistled to his dog and went directly to the river nearby.
  "Thank you, dear! You are a nice little boy" he repeated the woman's words. Then in a low voice he said to his dog, "You are a nice little dog!" Tiger raised its ears as if it understood.
  "Unum! Even a dog likes it!" he said. "Well, Tiger, I won't say unkind words to you any more." Tiger waved its tail happily.
  The boy thought and thought. Finally he looked at himself in the river. He saw nothing but a dirty boy. He washed his face carefully. Again he looked. He saw a clean nice boy. He was amazed. From then on, he had a new life.
  After telling this, the businessman stopped for a while, and then he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the very place where that kind woman planted in me the first seed of kindness. All of us should learn about kindness. What a great power it has!"
question: The boy repeated the words "Thank you, dear! You are a nice little boy!" because  _  .
options: he was thinking about the words he didn't understand the words he wanted to talk to his dog he liked talking to himself